Don’t play play – “BTO”, “jialat” and “kaypoh” just joined the Oxford English Dictionary

Singlish has been making its way into the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) for years, and don’t play play – the streak is still going strong in 2026. On March 24, the OED officially added 9 new Singlish words. And if you’re wondering what the big deal is, the OED is the gold standard for tracking the history and meaning of over 500,000 English words worldwide. If it’s in the OED, it’s official. 

It feels like just yesterday we were celebrating "alamak” and “tapau” making the cut, but this year’s batch is even bigger. The list includes “agak agak” (to estimate or gauge), “BTO” (Build-To-Order public housing; also used as a verb for applying), “kaypoh” (nosey, busybody) and “play play” (not serious, fooling around). On top of the slang, our food is getting some love too, with “ice kachang” and “assam laksa” finally getting their own formal definitions.

Here’s the full list of new Singlish words added to the OED:

1. assam laksa 
2. agak-agak
3. boleh
4. BTO
5. ice kacang
6. jialat
7. kaypoh
8. play play
9. wayang

For the full list of words added to the OED this year, visit their page here.

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